November 04, 2016

In the middle of the change from small town to booming Dallas suburb is football. Celina could end up with more than one high school and therefore more than one football team, a division of the local talent pool that would vex some. But a more immediate question is over the future need for a new stadium to house the existing team and its swelling fanbase. The current 3,800-capacity Bobcat Stadium, regularly packed, might soon be unable to cope with demand.

These are interesting times for high school football stadiums in Texas. Nearby McKinney recently approved the construction of a new $70m, 12,000-seat stadium to be shared by the city’s three high schools. That followed hard on the heels of a $60m, 18,000-capacity venue for neighboring Allen – which has one high school – completed in 2012. Local media have called the sprouting of expensive stadiums among rival school districts in affluent suburbs an arms race. The adjacent Frisco, meanwhile, entered a partnership with the Dallas Cowboys for its schools to play in the NFL team’s new indoor practice facility built in the city. The Frisco independent school district is chipping in $30m so area kids can run out at The Ford Center at The Star, capacity 12,000.

October 27, 2016

Wingsuit flying is approximately dangerous. Eric Dossantos hit the trees at about 150 km/h sherring off a 20 cm diameter part of a trunk and leaving a trail for over 100 meters. He lived but is in serious condition with multiple broken bones and a brain injury.

September 14, 2016

“For so many here, college athletics is part of their identity, so I think today, it’s more than economics,” said D. Scott Dupree, the executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, which recruits events to the area in and around the state capital. “I think people today feel disappointed, frustrated, ticked off or just plain sad, or a combination of all of the above. People take it personally.”

Officials at the universities in the state that belong to the Atlantic Coast Conference — Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest — expressed disappointment in the N.C.A.A.’s plan. Fan websites became forums for arguments about civil rights law instead of recruiting. Then there was the incredulity that North Carolina, which has hosted more N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament games (251) than any other state, would not do so next year.

“This cuts really deep for me,” said Mayor Nancy Vaughan of Greensboro, whose father was the A.C.C.’s associate commissioner for basketball operations. “We have a history of supporting people throughout our community, and we wish the N.C.A.A. would have made their decision based on the merits of the communities that these tournaments are in and not by something the legislature imposed on us.”

September 13, 2016

The N.C.A.A., responding to a contentious North Carolina law that curbed anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, will relocate all championship tournament games scheduled to take place in the state over the coming academic year, the organization announced Monday night.

Among the events affected is the Division I men’s basketball tournament, the N.C.A.A.’s most prominent annual event, which had six first- and second-round games scheduled to be played in Greensboro in March.

The announcement followed the N.B.A.’s decision in July to move its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte but was seen as a particularly substantial blow to officials in North Carolina, where college basketball is central to the state’s culture and pride. North Carolina has hosted more men’s basketball tournament games than any other state, an N.C.A.A. spokesman said.